Black Support Of Gun Ownership Skyrockets

Detroit Police Chief James Craig is a rarity, in that he is the top law enforcement officer in a Democrat-controlled major urban city who is staunchly pro-Second Amendment and pro-concealed carry, actively pushing citizens to carry concealed weapons to defend themselves in a city where budget cuts have left the police department grossly underfunded and understaffed.

“It was a well-known fact here in Detroit,” he says. “People didn’t have a lot of confidence that when they dialed 911, that the police were going to show up. In fact, we know they didn’t.”

So he endorsed a trend that was already well under way — the trend toward more people carrying legal guns.

Craig’s Detroit is part of a stunning recent trend in black communities towards the acceptance of gun ownership.

According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, 54 percent of blacks now see gun ownership as a good thing, something more likely to protect than harm. That’s up from 29 percent just two years ago. In places like Detroit, more African-Americans are getting permits to carry concealed weapons.

That is a stunning increase in just two years, and it isn’t entirely clear what spurred such a radical shift in perceptions.

Chief Craig and four-term Sheriff David Clarke of Milwaukee County are two high-profile black law enforcement officers that are very vocal in their support of the Second Amendment, and so perhaps the views of these highly-respected lawmen are making an impact even outside their cities. Shooting enthusiasts like Colion Noir and Ken Blanchard are certainly helping spread the pro-gun message across the nation.

Heck, even the racially-tinged messages of armed self-reliance from the New Black Panthers and the Huey P. Newton Gun Club are possibly encouraging blacks to arm themselves.

Whatever the reason, the trend towards gun rights has to be worrying for gun control supporters, who could count on blacks for near-lockstep support just two years ago.

Gun control is increasingly becoming a tiny but vocal movement for old, white, wealthy liberals.

I don’t see how that is sustainable… and I don’t think they can see it, either.